The springboard help us to suspend judgment and provides an atmosphere for imperfect ideas, which would otherwise be destroyed, to develop. It is often the flawed idea, which may provide the seed for a brilliant solution. In most meetings, ideas and people are destroyed by what I call heat seeking missiles which makes it difficult for individuals to take the risk of giving new ideas. Facing ridicule and dealing with failure are coping skills which no one seems to teach managers.
Springboard are used to prevent ideas from being judged. They are very useful when new ideas are nurtured in an atmosphere of suspended judgment. Example Springboard would involve requesting people to prepare a WISH LIST to solve a specific problem. You tell individuals if you can have all the resources and materials and people you need how would you solve this problem? This would enable people to ignore obstacles and protect ideas from criticism. Whenever an idea is given, all individuals in the group must first say what they like about the idea. They would then ask the idea owner, how to solve some of the problems involved.
Play Devil’s Advocate. As a discipline, think of the exact opposite of the view you have been holding. If you’ve been saying ‘Yes’ get the motivation for ‘No’
If you are an optimist, as a discipline work out the motivations of the pessimist. People feel busy and productive, leaping into activity. One can happily be busy doing work which may be non productive. In my view thinking should be the major activity of managers.
Creativity helps us to find alternatives to successful activities. But progress lies in constantly striving through innovation to delight the customer.